She Set Fire To My Heart
by Shockra2000
Summary: We know. Everything we've picked up on and understood have been from Katniss's point of view. But now it's time for Peeta. Follow him as he tells his story on specific times- like the the reaping and the cave. RxR
1. Ignition

**Ignition**

I can remember the day it all started like it was yesterday. The day I fell in love with Katniss. She was as cute as a button with her black hair woven into two neat braids down her back. As she stepped onto the school property for the first time, she struggled to make her way through the thick crowd of kids. I watched her in awe as she moved, observing how the braids bounced off her back with every step she took. Clad in a red plaid dress, she marched in with the crowd of kindergarteners. I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

I hadn't even met her, but I could tell by the way my heart was fluttering in my chest that she was more than just an average girl. There was something special about her. Even in just the way she walked, she moved with a subtle grace that no other child had mastered.

My eyes were torn away from her when she entered the building and I lost sight of her.

That's when I remembered that I had to get into school as well, so I quickly joined the crowd and made my way inside.

All of the kids congregated into the classroom and the day slowly went by. As we went from history to music, we switched classrooms and walked down the hall. When we arrived at our new destination, the music teacher asked for any volunteers to sing the Valley Song, and any guesses whose hand shot into the air?

Yup. You guessed it- that special girl.

Heck, I didn't even know her first name. But that didn't matter to me.

When she opened her mouth to start singing, a beautiful melody poured out. It reminded me of a butterfly; fluttering, light, and beautiful. It was so beautiful, that even the mocking-jays, lords of song, stopped harmonizing to listen.

But right then and there on that day, I knew there would never be another girl for me.

She was the one.

When my dad came to pick me up from school, he pointed over to that special girl.

"That, Peeta," He said with a small smile playing on his lips, "That's Katniss Everdeen. I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner instead."

"A coal miner? Why would she pick the coal miner when she could have you?"

He stared down at me with a glazed expression, as if he was reliving a memory.

"Because when he sings, all of the birds stop to listen."

And it all made sense. Katniss had inherited that gift, as well.

She possessed many other gifts, too, I soon realized.

But whatever it was about her, I could never truly identify. But no matter what it was, she had me utterly and completely under her spell.**Hi! I just read the Hunger Games and I fell in love. Since I absolutely can't get enough of the Katniss and Peeta romance, I decided to throw together a little montage of their relationship from Peeta's point of view; some of the stories from the book (but not the EXACT story... I'm far too lazy to get the exact words. Sorry.), others from my imagination.I hope you liked the first one, and I'll try to keep posting more.I know it's probably a common story line, but I was just so inspired after reading these books that I had to throw something yes, I know it's gushy. So, so mushy and gushy and perhaps even corny. Yes, I know. But that's Peeta for you, ya know?Hope you liked it so far, for reading!**


	2. Tending to the Fire

**Tending to the Fire**

"Peeta!" My mother's rough voice pierced through another of my daily reveries. "Bake the bread already, will ya?"

I blinked a few times and tried to shake off my daydream. I don't have to tell you who I was daydreaming about, do I?

As I whipped around to grab my apron from the countertop, I saw two hungry eyes staring into the bakery. There she was! Not in a daydream, but alive and in flesh! But she looked so frail and deteriorated, like all that was left of her were skin and bones.

And besides the fact that you could count her ribs (one, two, three, four...), but you could visibly see starvation in her eyes. She must not have eaten a substantial meal in days. Not to mention her family.

"Stop staring and leave, girl!" My mother shooed her away. "If I get another brat from the Seam hanging around the bakery hoping to snag some free food, I'm gonna call the Peacekeepers in!"

Katniss dragged herself off and my mother smiled as she shooed the poor girl away.

I sighed at my mother's cruelty and decided that I had to take matters into my own hands.

I 'accidentally' dropped the bread I was going to bake into the fire. I managed to grab them out before they got too charred to eat, but not fast enough to escape getting a beating from my mother.

As her hand smacked itself across my cheek, and I knew the bruise was going to be tattooed across my face for weeks. I winced in pain, but I knew it was worth it. How could I ever cope if Katniss died?

"Now feed the bread you burnt to the pigs." Mother rasped. "Lousy son burning bread," she muttered as I walked out to the stables.

I could feel Katniss' eyes on me as I peeled the burnt edges off and threw them to the pigs. But I didn't want to meet her gaze because... because why?

Because she was starving and I hated seeing her so frail and limp? Because I had just gotten punished and my pride was too wounded to look at her straight in the eyes? Or was it because I just liked her so much, that I just got nervous around her?

It was the third, most definitely.

As I tossed her the bread without any eye contact, I could hear her eagerly scramble to claim the loaves. I smiled to myself, but bit my lip.

Nothing's ever going to happen between me and her. It just doesn't happen. She's from the Seam, and I'm from the market. But even then... Why would a girl like her fall for a guy like me?

I shook away the thought as I reentered the bakery. Even though it was warm and smelled delicious in here, the only place I wanted to be was right next to her.


	3. The Fire Flickers

**The Fire Flickers**

Jealousy and hatred are two very strong emotions that I never let myself feel. They seemed useless and degrading.

I mean, hating someone is such a low, inconsiderate thing to do. And most people don't even think twice about it. But why do we have the ability to hate? It solves nothing and only makes us feel like angry, uncivilized creatures. You shouldn't judge people, and everyone has a back-story. Meaning, how can you possibly hate someone if you don't REALLY know them? If you just see them and have developed a disliking of someone, how and why could you automatically conclude that you hate them?

Well, that's what I had always told myself. Until one person rubbed me in such a wrong way that I knew right from the get-go that I hated him.

And I hated myself for it.

I didn't want to hate him, no! But I was just so jealous!

...Which brings me to my next point, jealousy.

Jealousy solves absolutely nothing. You waste your time wanting what others have, but just by wanting, you're never going to achieve the things that you want so badly from others. You just waste your time, feeling awful about yourself, and wishing you had something another has. It's useless. And I swore I'd never let myself feel it. I wanted to be better than that.

But I slipped. I went against what I had vowed I would never do- become jealous and hate someone without getting to know them. All because I had seen Gale and Katniss together.

But it was more than just that, I assure you. It would be petty otherwise.

Most days, I would look out of the bakery windows and see Katniss and Gale coming back from the woods, dragging all of the animals they killed with them as they took them to places they know they could get good trades in exchange for them. They would always be talking and seemed to be having a good time.

Even then, it took a lot to convince myself not to get jealous. But in the end, I could always swallow it down, and just promise myself that the next day in school, I could finally muster enough courage and talk to her.

But... how do you talk to an angel?

Needless to say, I never did get around to talking to her.

But now I'm getting off topic. While Gale and Katniss were going around, trading their kills, I overheard Gale say to Katniss, "You know, maybe we should just run away. We should escape all of this. And, we could make it out there. We'd be strong enough to."

That's when hatred, first off, bubbled in me. He was going to steal Katniss from me! I mean, she was never really mine, but if he took her away, I'd never have an opportunity to even talk to her. And perhaps I hated the fact that since they were such close friends, it was actually an option for them. They COULD run away together. And then I became jealous. If Katniss could run away with anyone, I would've wished it to be me.

And that's when I swore that after today's reaping, I'd definitely make today the day when I finally talked to Katniss Everdeen.

I had to talk to her, now more than ever since I knew there was a chance she might run away.

But I never even had an opportunity.

Because the reaping changed everything.

**Hi! So I know that Gale had offered to run away with Katniss in the woods, but just to write a chapter inside Peeta's mind that wasn't originally in the book, I changed it. Hope you don't mind TOO for reading! Hope you liked it.**


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